By William Horobin 

PARIS--France's economy is improving though the country's economic performance lags behind the rest of the eurozone's, with more needed to be done to foster growth and create jobs, according to one of the European Central Bank's most senior officials.

Benoît Coeuré, a Frenchman who joined the ECB's executive board in 2011, said French President François Hollande is right to say the economy is getting better after an improvement in growth at the start of the year.

That growth is mainly supported by ECB stimulus aimed at reviving inflation, he said.

Mr. Coeuré urged the government to undertake a deeper overhaul of the eurozone's second biggest economy.

"Things aren't going well enough. Growth isn't strong enough to resolve France's problems," Mr. Coeure said in an interview on radio station France Inter.

Mr. Coeure's comments come a year ahead of presidential elections in France that are raising pressure on Mr. Hollande to obtain better economic results. Since Mr. Hollande took office in 2012, unemployment has risen, with the jobless rate standing at 10.3% at the end of last year, while jobless claims have reached record highs.

The Socialist president's latest attempt to improve the jobs market through legislation to introduce more flexibility in the workplace has angered employment unions, sparking street protests in recent weeks that have at times turned violent. The government already backed down from an earlier version of the labor bill, a move that business leaders say stripped the plans of anything that would encourage job creation.

Mr. Coeure says that the labor bill in its current form goes in the right direction, but comes a bit late in France.

"It will create jobs, but is it sufficient? No," Mr. Coeure said.

Write to William Horobin at William.Horobin@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 02, 2016 03:52 ET (07:52 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.